Apologising to Mr Lightly Simpson of Beech Road

Now Lightly Simpson is not a name you forget and ever since I first came across him I have wondered about his life and career.

Chorlton Row, now Beech Road in 1844

He came from Tadcaster and was born in 1810.

And I have done him a big injustice because he appears in the census for 1841 living on what is now Beech Road listing his occupation as “druggist” and I naturally assumed he was one of our shopkeepers, worse still I said so in the book.*

It did seem a tad odd that a small rural community like Chorlton should have a druggist but there he was living with his family somewhere near the bottom of the road where it runs into the green.

But it transpires he was much more than just a country chemist having a prestigious shop in the heart of the city which he opened in 1830, two more in the suburbs and was granted a patent for his invention of a better way of preparing colours for printing cotton and other fabrics.

Lily Cottage, later Row House circa 1980

All of which he had achieved by the age of 25 and which by the late 1840s he had left behind plunging instead into the wonderful and exciting new business of railways, ending up as a director on numerous companies.

None of which I knew until Mr Bill King made contact and asked me about Lightly’s connection with Chorlton and as they say a whole new chapter emerged.

But because this is still a piece of research in the making I shall not trespass on Mr King’s work until he has published it.

Lilly Cottage, later Row House 2008

Instead I shall fasten on the time Mr and Mrs Simpson were living on Beech Road which looks to be no more than three years from the June of 1841 to 1844.

They are on the census for 1841 which was taken in the June, but do not appear on the directories which will have been compiled in late 1840.

One of their sons was born here in 1842 but they were in Burnage two years later for the birth of their next child and by 1851 were in Flixton where Lightly and his eldest son described themselves as “retired druggists.”

All of which just leaves the question of where they lived on Beech Road.  I had assumed it might have been one of the wattle and daub cottages underneath the Trevor, but given that our Mr Lightly was already a man of substance I suspect it would have been all together a much grander affair.

Chorlton Row and its residents in 1845

Sadly I doubt that we will ever be able to locate it.

There are a number of possible properties all of which have long since been demolished but if pushed I think it might have been Lilly Cottage which was a fine looking house which stood on the corner of Acres Road and Beech Road.

It had been the home of the Blomley family in the early 19th century and in 1845 was occupied by a Mary Holland.

Later still it was the home of William Batty when it was known as Row House.

And it was still there as late as 2008.

In time I might come across more evidence, but the most detailed records for Beech Road are the Rate Books which begin in 1845 and the Tithe schedule which dates to the same year.

Alas by then Mr Simpson had moved on, but at least I can now be sure it was not from a chemist shop.

Pictures; detail Chorlton Row, now Beech Road from 1844 OS map of Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archive Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ and Row House in 1980 and 2008 from the collection of Lawrence Beedle

*The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

Days on the Rec ………. No. 1 …… early morning

One of the best times to enjoy the Rec is on an early sunny morning.

The Friends of Beech Road have yet to park their cars up in preparation for a visit to the bars, restaurants and gift shops, and you can enjoy the sunlight, the trees and solitude.

Location; Beech Road

Picture; early morning beside the Rec, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A little bit of Chorlton wilderness ……

Now of course there was a time when most of Chorlton was fields, with a fair sprinkling of orchards, where tenant farmers and market gardens busied themselves.

I doubt even then that there were bits that were overgrown, so it was nice to come across this patch.

Location; somewhere in Chorlton

Picture; A little bit of Chorlton wilderness, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

 

The not so nice side of hat making at the Stockport Hat Works Museum

We were at the Hat Works Museum in Stockport recently.  

It is spread over three floors, showcases a range of fashion and utility wear as well as headdresses from around the world.

And because Stockport along with Denton were centres for the manufacture of hats the museum offers up the story of the industry in the north west and of the working lives of the people who made the hats.

These include some wonderful short videos where the people engaged in the business talk about their work along with the harsh conditions and a little of the community spirit, which is not surprising given that whole generations of some families worked alongside each other.

They worked together, and lived beside each other in the small terraced houses in the shadow of the factories.

For a product which looked so elegant and could cost a lot of money, the fashion hat no less than the traditional bowler, and homburg were made at a severe price to the health of the workers.

In the wet room the material was worked in a mix of warm water and diluted acid, while in the dry room the dust and detritus from the fur had to be brushed out of the hair each evening before leaving work.

It was a place where one woman “hated everyday of the four years I spent there,” while another reflected on the danger of hats that span off machines at terrifying speeds.

And yet more than one commented on the fact that it had been a “decent way to make a modest living.”

That said it was an industry which pretty much came to a fairly sudden end.  For this was no slow lingering decline.  In just a few short decades what had provided employment for many shrank to just a few factories.

Now there are various explanations but for those you will have to visit the museum "which takes 
you on a journey through the history of Stockport’s once thriving hatting industry.

The museum is home to a recreated hat factory with some 20 fully restored working Victorian-style machines and a fantastic collection of over 400 hats from around the world.”*

Pictures; the working floor of the museum from the collection of Andrew Simpson


*Hat Works Museum http://www.stockport.gov.uk/services/leisureculture/visitstockport/museumsandgalleries/hatworks/?view=Standard

The lost Didsbury pub …………

It was the pub which progressed from being a hotel, went on to have a connection with a snooty fox and ended its days as the Mersey Lights.

The Mersey Hotel opened on November 30th, 1939 and was an impressive place which according to the Manchester Evening News was a “modernistic and scientifically built hotel, with “a futuristic design”, but also reflected “the spirit of the past”, with its half-timbered exterior and grand entrance.

Inside, the hotel was divided into several rooms including a Lounge, Smoke Room and smaller areas, which were decorated with paneled walls and murals.

And in a nice touch of recognition to the “workmen who for the last 12 months have been building the premises”, Groves and Whitnall, who had spent £40,000 on its construction, “arranged that the workmen, including, foreman, joiners, carpenters, bricklayers, plasters, plumbers and other artisans shall have the honour of declaring this magnificent new hotel officially open”.*

We might find this a cynical marketing ploy, but I like to think it was genuine, and as the advert proclaimed, “The Opening Ceremony … performed by the Craftsmen who built it”, represented “A Pageant of Labour”.

A full forty years later I occasionally called in for a drink , and would sometimes be tempted to stay on for the big show, for like many of these big interwar pubs, the Mersey offered live entertainment, which had included, Little and Large, Les Dawson, Bernard Manning and Freddie and the Dreamers.

It is a little surprising today to realize that the Mersey, along with the Princess Club, in Chorlton, the Golden Garter in Wythenshawe and pubs like the Princess on the Parkway attracted many of the top entertainers of the 1960s and 70s, including the Drifters, Bob Monkhouse, Billy J Kramer, Lonnie Donegan and Tom Jones and plenty more.

In later years, Mersey Hotel became the Snooty Fox and later still the Mersey Lights.

At which I have to confess that to write more about this lost pub will only get me into trouble with Peter Topping who co-wrote our book Manchester Pubs The Stories Behind the Doors Didsbury

So I shall just tell you that it is available from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; courtesy of Sally Dervan  











*The Mersey Hotel, Princess Parkway, West Didsbury, Opens Tomorrow Noon, The Manchester Evening News November 29th, 1939

A little bit of Turog in Irlam ....... gone but not forgotten

 Now if you are of a certain age and come from the North, the name Turog will instantly conjure up loaves of brown bread.

The flour for the bread was made by Spillers who then sold it on  to bakers who were licensed to make Turog bread, which Spillers promoted by advertising.

And plenty of those adverts still abound across the Greater Manchester and Yorkshire.

So, it isn’t too surprising that Andy came across his ghost sign for the bread.

I say ghost sign because production seems to have ceased a long time ago, although just when I have yet to find out.

Some sources vaguely refer to the 1960s, but it could be later, and might have coincided with a take over of Spillers by Dalgety plc in 1979 who sold the bakery side of the business to Allied Bakery.

But like all these things I am confident someone will tell me.

All of which left its rival Hovis to carry on offering up a type of brown bread made in the same way as Turog.

Location; Irlam

Picture; Turog ghost sign, Irlam, 2022, from the collection of Andy Robertson

The road sign ……. a missing street …….. and a walk through Gorton

This is all that might be left of Beasley Street.

The sign, 1963

It was salvaged by Jack Beasley in 1963 and there is the obvious link.

His daughter Kirsty always thought it came from Hulme but a search of the records has so far revealed no street with that name in the area, or in Chorlton-on-Medlock for which there is a picture of the young Jack.

Beasley Street, Gorton, 1952

And of course history is messy, and doesn’t always want to work the way you wish.

The best so far is Beasley Street in Gorton, which was off Taylor Street which in turn ran down from Gorton Lane and was later renamed Bannock Street.  

It has long since gone and is under Gorton Parks Nursing Home.

In 1911 it consisted of a mix of 3 and four roomed  properties  whose occupants did a variety of skilled and unskilled jobs, ranging from labourers, to those working in the nearby locomotive works.  

Added to these there was a “Peddlar”, “a coal carter”, and “coal heaver”, along with a  “Rubber mixer”.

The three surviving photographs in the City’s Image Collection of the street from the 1960s, show houses which fit the part.*

Beasley Street, Gorton, 1959

But here the messy element re-enters the story, because the pictures are dated 1959, 1964, and 1965 which run counter to the date recorded by Jack Beasley.

Of course, the dates in the image collection may be wrong, or we are up against that inconvenient conclusion that our Beasley Street was not after all in Gorton.

Clinging just for a minute to the Gorton connection it may be that the later dated pictures are of houses that survived the first clearance.

Beasley Street, Gorton, 1964

So, I am left pondering whether the minutes for Manchester City Council for the early 60s will reveal anything on the  planned demolition of Gorton houses or someone will come up with memories of a Beasley Street in Hulme, which may have been built post 1939 and went less than 30 years later.

We shall see.

But like all good detective stories I shall close with the comment written by Jack on the reverse of the sign.

It has faded over the years but offers the date and the clue that it was taken from a building.

And for those with a literary interest there is the poem "Beasley Street", by John Cooper Clarke, which according to the poet was inspired by Camp Street in Lower Broughton.

So there you are, another twisty  bit which makes history all the more messy.

And as ever John Anthony Hewitt came up with that bit or research that seems to finish the job

"The road sign was taken from the building shown in the 1959 photo, which is the same shapes as the salvaged one. Jack's message says 'Taken from the [old?] building to be demolished, 6 July 1963' is consistent with that photo. 

Whereas both road signs attached to the wall of the building in the 1964 photo are the same, more modern design. That old building in the 1959 photo makes the old map look wrong, but look again at that building, it appears to have a few tales to tell. 

The shed along Beasley Street was a later addition, built on the remains of a demolished house. The adjoining wall on Taylor Street is also a remnant of a demolished house. The large entrance appears to be either a much altered terraced house or a later build several decades earlier judging by the grime".

Location; Beasley Street, somewhere

Jack's clue, 1963

Pictures; the Beasley Street Road sign and Jacks comment on the reverse, 1963, courtesy of Kirsty, Beasley Street Gorton, 1952, Manchester & Salford OS, and Beasley Street, Gorton, 1959, G. Gray, m26713  1964, T. Brooks, m22875, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass *

Sources; Census Return for Beasley Street, Enu 87, 292, Ardwick, South Manchester, Lancashire, 1911, Manchester & Salford Street Directory, 1911, and the 1939 Register

In the Market Place in Stockport in 1905

We are in Stockport at the Market Place with the parish church in the distance.

Now the date is a little unclear but the postcard was registered by Tuck & Sons Ltd on July 31st 1905 and I guess the photograph will date from about then.

And there are clues that confirm this.

Andrew  Beckett & Sons whose ice cream van stands in the corner of the picture was trading in 1902 at both 11 Wellington Street South and 26 Middle Hillgate in 1902.

And as you would expect there is a story here.

Andrew Becket was born in 1830 in Italy and I doubt that Beckett was his given name.

He was in England in Runcorn by 1865 and was living at numbers 1 & 3 John Street in Stockport by 1881

A decade later the family had moved to 26 Hillgate.

But in 1901  the firm is in the hands of his son Angelo who while he was born in Runcorn had an Italian wife, gave both his children Italian forenames and employed four men all born in Italy.

All of which just leaves me to ponder on the identity of the young man staring back at us in the van.

It might be Alberto Cavilli or Guiseppina Pasquale both of whom were working for Angelo in 1901 but both will have been in their early 20s in 1905 so perhaps not.

Nor is that the only clue to the date, for in the same street directory for 1902 there is one Joseph Emerson, tailor at 28 Market Place, and that is his shop on the left.

His painted sign on the side wall proudly announced that he promised that “MORNING ORDERS IN 8 HOURS PROMPTLY EXECUTED” and offered everything from suits, overcoats to trousers and much more.

The firm has long gone but the sign is still there, faded and a little difficult to read but very much the same as in our 1905 photograph.

In time the picture will reveal much more but there is much to look at, from the men in deep conversation to the detail of the delivery van in the distance and those closer to us.

Picture; Parish Church and Market, from the series Town & City, by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/ and the ghost sign of J. Emerson from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Rainy Day Rec 1 & 2 …………

Yes …. for those who are familiar with the music of Bob Dylan it’s a poor attempt at a play on his song Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.

It’s not a favourite of mine but fits the day given that the “official” explanation of how the song got its name was because a woman and her daughter came into the recording studio out of the rain.

A week after the blistering heat wave, the rain just kept coming down like stair rods creating those puddles and deterring all but the very hardy from spending time in the Rec.

Not that this is an attempt to belittle the week we have had or suggest that those high temperatures and the implications for the future can be side lined by two days of rain.

After all it wasn’t that much here in Chorlton, and I doubt will do much to replenish the reservoirs.

But it did make for those puddles which in turn offered up some reflections.

Location; The Rec

Pictures; Rainy Day Rec 1 & 2, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Painting Well Hall and Eltham ........ nu 9 ........ catching the tram*

Now I know route number 40 never went through Well Hall

We had  routes 44 and 46, but this one is close enough.

It ran via the Old Kent Road and Westminster to the Embankment.

But it is special because it was one of the trams I might just have caught had I been old enough, given that we once lived close to the Old Kent Road.

And knowing how special LCC 1622 was to me, Peter offered to paint it from a picture taken back in 2015 by Andy Robertson.

At which point I could go into great detail on the story of the Woolwich and Eltham trams, but I won't.

Instead I will merely say that when the Government settled on Well Hall for its huge housing estate for the Arsenal workers in 1915 our tram network had already been in place for five years and following the Great War the network was extended to Lee, Lewisham and London.

Which I think neatly gets in a bit of Well Hall’s history alongside my tram and leave me just to correct the story, because Sonia tells me that that the "72 tram went to New Cross through Well Hall all along Westhorne."

Location; London

Painting; LCC tram 1622 © 2016 Peter Topping from a photograph by Andy Robertson, 2015.

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Facebook: Paintings from Picture,s https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures

*Painting Well Hall and Eltham, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Painting%20Well%20Hall%20and%20

Who pinched Stockport’s Cattle Market?

It is of course not a question any serious historian or person in the know would entertain.

1885

But then I am neither, and so I am happy to be silly and frivolous on how I treat the past.

And  the upshot has been a series of stories.*

I first came across its presence on the 1910 OS map of Stockport, located in that pocket of land between Great Portwood Street, and the River Goyt.

Today the site is a retail park, and as far away from cattle and other livestock as you can get.

1910

But from 1879 until sometime in the 20th century it did the business and appears in local newspapers, from at least 1824.

Now all this I know because of the help of Bill Sumner, and Barry Collison who went off and dug deep into the pictorial history of the area and into records of the Manchester Evening News and Manchester Mercury.

The area according to one source had been a reservoir with the original cattle market sited on Castle Yard.

And Castle Yard was rich in history, with both the Romans and the Normans showing an interest in its strategic location leading both to add fortifications to the site.

In the 18th century Sir George Warren as lord of the manor levelled the land and built a circular brick turret, which was later demolished when the land was lowered in 1853 for the cattle market.*

And here as a nonresident of Stockport I had got a tad confused, because the Portwwod Road site was clearly not Castle Yard, and so I wasn’t able to square the historic aerial maps from the 1920s and 40s, with the location by the Market Place.

But the solution came in the form of a newspaper clipping from the Manchester Mercury dated, October 4th 1879, which reported that “yesterday the Stockport Cattle and Horse Fair was held for the first time on the new ground at Portwood.

Hitherto the fairs have been held in the Market Place and adjacent narrow street, which became overcrowded, , rendering locomotion difficult and dangerous.

The new fairground adjoins the new borough gasworks, being part of an extensive plot of land, formerly the site of a reservoir”

Later stories in the Manchester Evening News , reported that in the June of  1885, “more than a moderate stock of animals were on offer at the Borough Cattle Market this morning, although many were not in prime condition.  Horses found few buyers at the prices asked, but many of these, as well as several young colts, remained on hand.  Milch cows were sold at prices varying from £14 to £20, but higher figures were asked for the best stock on sale.  
Calves looked weakly, and buyers were slow at making purchases.  Neither these nor the cows were all cleared off. Pigs fetched from 24s to 36s.  In the ordinary market there was a good supply of fowls, principally Spanish, which bought from 5s.6d to 6s. per couple; ducks 1s. dearer”.*****

Nor was August any better with the Manchester Evening News commenting “Trade was not brisk in the Borough Cattle Market this morning, although there was an appearance of activity ….[and] in the general market dealers complained of business being slow”.

Of course, these are but snap shots, and certainly in earlier years business was better, with the Manchester Mercury reporting the fair “was well supplied with every description.  Calving cows were in great demand and sold well ….Good cart horses met with a ready sale, and good hacks fetched high prices.”******

1946

There will be those from Stockport who will have chapter and verse on the story of the cattle market, and I hope they come forward.

I suspect its history goes back much earlier than 1825, while it’s demise will have been sometime in the middle decades of the last century.

Bill Sumner’s aerial maps shows that the Gas Works had expanded across the site, and, Dave from Marpletold me, "I worked for Northwest Gas at the Portwood site from 1975 till the late 80s when the new development took place.  The site of the cattle market had up until the early 80s been occupied by Norweb, the electricity supply company. I have always known it was the site of an earlier cattle market as I recall there being a sign on one of the gates into the site identifying that it had been the site of a cattle market"

So there is still lots more to find out, but in the meantime thanks to Bill Sumner, Barry Collison and Dave from Marple.

Location; Stockport

Pictures, Opening of a New Cattle Market, Manchester Courier, October 4th, 1879, courtesy of Barry Collison, the site in 1910,  from the OS map of Cheshire, 1906, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ and the site in 1946, EAW 002115 Britain From Above

*Stockport Cattle Market, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Stockport%20Cattle%20Market

**Stockport A Pictorial History, Roy West, 2009, & 2013

***Britain From Above, https://britainfromabove.org.uk/

****Opening of a New Cattle Market, Manchester Courier, October 4th, 1879

*****Stockport June Fair, Manchester Evening News June, 1885

******Manchester Mercury, 1824

Shopping in a palace ……….

So, The Trafford Centre is one those places I have pretty much taken for granted and is not a place I often go to.

Shopping in a palace, 2022

Which for some will amount to a confession of snobbery.

But I have always preferred Manchester, more because in between the endless trawling for bargains and looking for those essential and fashionable items, there are heaps of side streets to dip into and uncover bits of the city’s history.

Added to which on busy days there are just too many people.

That said, on a wet day in February there is a certain attraction to shopping under one roof, added to which Timmy tram will whisk me there with just the one change at Cornbrook.

And while it’s a slightly longer journey than the 23/25, from Chorlton I never miss up an opportunity to do the tram.

Busy day, 2022

My Wikipedia tells me that “The Trafford Centre is a large indoor shopping centre and leisure complex in Greater Manchester, England. 

Located in Urmston in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, the centre is within the Trafford Park industrial estate, five miles west of Manchester city centre.

The Trafford Centre opened in 1998 and is the third largest shopping centre in the United Kingdom by retail size.

The Trafford Centre's unorthodox style of architecture was prompted by the wish to offer a unique shopping experience. John Whittaker, chairman of Peel Holdings, had to convince architects that a lavish design would not alienate shoppers. 

Even the retail furniture is in gold and marble

Although the extravagant Rococo and Baroque design may be viewed as gaudy the prospect of the shopping centre ageing and becoming dated is greatly mitigated”.*

And it goes without saying that even those bits of retail furniture are adorned in gold and marble.

Over the years all our kids have done Trafford Centre, which I suppose was because it was easy to get to, simple to negotiate and free to roam over.

Anything but ordinary, M&S 2022

And was always a place they and we felt was safe.

All of which meant that on Saturday we zipped across, ostensibly to return something, and while Tina and her mum then went onto window shop for what seemed an eternity, I took a few pictures.

Location; Trafford Centre

Pictures; Saturday in Trafford Centre, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Trafford Centre, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trafford_Centre

On Stockport's Lower Hillgate in 1908 looking for a German band.

We are looking up Lower Hillgate in Stockport sometime in the summer of 1905 and with a bit of imagination it is not hard to reconstruct the scene, not least because some of the buildings have survived almost intact.

That said what interests me more is the message on the back from Clara to her friend Miss Carless of Guildford which she sent just three years after our picture was taken.

Clara is full of the news that she has “just bought four new songs this morning.” Now the four included Oh, Oh Antonio, and In the Twi Twi Twilight and Has anyone seen a German Band?

And new they were with Has anyone seen a German Band? having been published the year before in 1907.

We are of course in that time when people still bought sheet music and performed the songs themselves.

Sadly we will never know what Miss Carless thought of the songs or for that matter how good a singer was Clara.

Picture; Lower Hillgate, from the series Stockport, by Tuck & Sons, 1905 courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/ 

The Judge and Counsel in the P.C. Cock Murder Trial ... another story from Tony Goulding

The murder of P. C. Nicholas Cock and the subsequent trial of two young Irish agricultural labourers, John and William Habron has been explored a number of times on this Blog. 

P.C. Nicholas Cocks memorial stone in St Clement’s Old Graveyard

In an effort to find something fresh to write about the case I decided to investigate the lives of the Judge and the prosecuting and defending counsel.  

The trial judge was Mr. Justice Lindley while the prosecutor was Mr. William H. Higgin Q.C. and the brothers were defended by Mr. John H. P. Leresche Q.C.

Lord Justice Lindley in 1893

 Nathaniel Lindley was born on the 28th November, 1828 in Acton Green, London. His father, John, was an eminent botanist and leading expert on orchids, who soon after Nathaniel’s birth was appointed as the newly established London University’s first professor of botany. He combined this rôle with working for the Horticultural Society of London (1), in which capacity he was instrumental in the successful campaign, of 1840, to save the botanical gardens at Kew from government plans for its closure. His mother, Sarah (née Freestone) was from the quaintly named village of St. Margaret South Elmham in Suffolk and was a descendant of Sir Edward Coke the eminent judge and parliamentarian during the reigns of both Elizabeth 1 and James 1 (VI of Scotland) (2).

Lord Justice Lindley

Nathaniel Lindley, perhaps benefitting from his father’s tenure at the University, was educated at University College a public school established by the nascent University of London, at which institution he continued his studies. On the 29th May 1850 he was “called to the Bar” at the Middle Temple. In the examinations which he took to so qualify he was placed first among the candidates and was awarded the Lecturer’s Prize: the 20 volumes of “Vesey’s reports”. His early career was in civil law; initially at the office of his maternal uncle, Edward Freestone an “attorney and solicitor” on Oxford Street, Norwich. He also authored several important law books, one of which remains in publication. 

In 1875, Just a year before the trial of the Habron brothers he was both knighted and made a judge in the criminal courts. Justice Hindley ascended the ranks of the judiciary until in October, 1897 he was appointed Master of the Rolls and less than three years later, on the 10th May, 1900 he was elevated to the Peerage as Baron Lindley of East Carleton in the County of Norfolk to enable him to sit as a Law Lord. He announced his resignation from his judicial duties as The Lord of Appeal in Ordinary on Monday 4th December 1905 and retired to his country estate near Norwich in Norfolk which he had inherited from his uncle. He did however remain fit enough to continue to serve as the chairman of the Norwich Magistrate Court for upwards of five more years. Even when well into his ninth decade he remained active on local committees and was a regular correspondent with public bodies and newspapers

St. Mary’s Churchyard, East Carleton, Norfolk

Nathaniel married Sarah Katherine Teale, the daughter of John Edward Teale, a deceased solicitor Deputy Registrar of the Diocese of Ripon and clerk to the West Riding Magistrates. The couple were married by the bride’s uncle on the 5th August, 1858 at Roundhay, Leeds, Yorkshire; their union was blessed with nine children. Baron Lindley died at his home in East Carleton on the 9th December, 1921 and is buried in St. Mary’s churchyard in the village. His estate was valued for probate purposes a £23,718 – 0s – 4d (equivalent today to £941, 004). His wife of more than 53 years, Sarah Katherine pre-deceased him on the 8th February, 1912.

The chief prosecutor of the case against the Habrons was William Housman Higgin Q.C. He was born on the 28th February, 1820 in Skerton, Lancaster, Lancashire where he was christened by his uncle Rev. William Higgin (3) on the 13th March, 1820. William’s parents were John Higgin, a solicitor, and Susannah (née Armstrong). His grandfather, also John Higgin, was the “Keeper of His Majesty’s Gaol, Lancaster”

Whilst still only 20 William married Mary Calah, the daughter of James Calah, an “Esquire”, of Holme Hall, Bottesford, North Lincolnshire on the 20th August, 1840 at St. Mary’s Church, Lancaster

William studied for the Bar at The Middle Temple in London, becoming a student there on the 23rd December,1842 and qualifying (“called to the Bar”) on the 28th January, 1848. 

Inside view of Lancaster Gaol - 1824

Initially William was not very successful and, in the August of 1857, he had to petition The Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors. (debt discharged 2nd September,1857). Since qualifying he had lived for a time in Birkenhead, near Liverpool where he had gone into partnership as Oil Merchants and Seed Crushers with his cousin Robert James Chippindall. It may have been the dissolving of this partnership, “by mutual consent” on the 29th March, 1855 which precipitated William’s financial difficulties.

From this date, however, William concentrated on his career in the Law. He was appointed a Queen’s Council at the Middle Temple on the 21st February, 1868, shortly after which, on the 23rd August, 1869 he accepted the chairmanship of the Salford Sessions; later also taking on a similar position in Preston, Lancashire (gratuitously from the spring of 1874; with a stipend, of £800, from July, 1879). On the 16th February, 1876 he was appointed the Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Lancaster. In the June of 1890, he was appointed Recorder of Preston.

 William lived in the North West of England all his life apart from his studies in London. The 1851 census records him at, 39, Hamilton Square, Birkenhead from where he moved, successively, to, Heaton Terrace, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, Heald Grove, Rusholme, Manchester, and Heald Green, Stockport, Cheshire. (4)

The 1861 census records show him residing, with 3 servants, at 3, Birch View, Longsight Street, Rusholme, Lancashire. In 1871, William was shown at “Norwood”, Vine Street, Broughton, Salford again with just 3 servants. His wife, appears at a lodging house in Buxton, Derbyshire. (possibly “Taking the Waters”) Ten years later the couple are still not shown as living together, although Mrs. Higgin is recorded living in a large house in Prestwich, Seedley Mount on Bury New Road. The household included a lady companion, butler, cook and 4 other servants. According to William’s obituary, in the Lancaster Gazette of the 4th February, 1893, this house was the venue for frequent lavish dinner parties which William was well known for. For a short time in the middle of the 1880s William moved back to live in Lancaster at Springfield Hall where he involved himself in local affairs and for his leisure time purchased “The John of Gaunt” a 150-foot yacht which he would crew with a few friends and sail down to Cowes in the Isle of Wight

William’s final few years were spent at Cloverley House, Stockport Road, Timperley, Cheshire which, as recorded in the 1891 census, he was sharing with his wife (and five servants). He died on the 30th January, at Hesketh Park Crescent, Southport, Lancashire where he was staying in the hope that the sea air would benefit his failing health. The report of his death and funeral in the Cheshire Observer of the 4th February, 1893 states that he left an invalid widow but no children. His estate was valued at £8,781-2s. (equivalent to £787,821 today)

Finally, William Housman Higgin has another South Manchester connection in that he was the Q.C. retained by the Moss Side Township to represent their opposition to it being incorporated into the City of Manchester.

Mr. John Henry Proctor Leresche, the defending counsel in the Habron case, was born in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1823, however, not wishing to make this post over long and to do his story justice I’ll leave off from giving any more details for now; but as they say “WATCH THIS SPACE”!

Pictures: - P.C. Nicholas Cocks memorial stone in St Clement’s Old Graveyard, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester from the collection of Tony Goulding. 

Lord Justice Lindley - By Alexander Bassano - Public Domain,

 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4820531

 St Mary’s Churchyard, East Carleton, Norfolk -

 By John Salmon, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8270814

Inside view of Lancaster Gaol. 1824 - By Unknown, probably a debtor imprisoned at the Castle - http://collections.lancsmuseums.gov.uk/narratives/object.php?irn=213, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7414221

 Notes: -

1)  The Horticultural Society of London became the Royal Horticultural Society at a time that its last President was Prince Albert, the Consort of Queen Victoria.

2)  Sir Edward Coke was at various times the Speaker of the House of Commons, Attorney General, and Solicitor General. He is also well known for the prosecutions of both Sir Walter Raleigh and The Gunpowder Plot Conspirators.

3)  At the time he baptised his nephew, Rev. William Higgin was the Chaplain of the Richmond General Penitentiary and Magdalen Asylum, Leeson Street, Dublin (in only his second clerical post). However, he later became a Bishop firstly of Limerick and later of Derry and Raphoe. 

4)  The records of William Housman Higgin’s addresses are exceptionally extensive due in part to an exhaustive list included in the London Gazette of the 14th August, 1857 giving the notification of his appearance in the debtor’s court at Lancaster on Friday, the 28th August at 11-00 a.m. This even included his address while he was in London, residing at Brompton Square, Brompton, Middlesex with chambers at Pump Court, Temple, London. His Offices in Liverpool were at Eldon Chambers, South John Street while those in Manchester were in 4 – 6, St. John’s Square.

Acknowledgements:- An excellent book, "The Victorian Master Criminal Charles Peace and the murders of Cock and Dyson" (2016) by David C. Hanrahan has a couple of detailed chapters on the trial of the Habron Brothers. also useful was Angela Buckley's "Who Killed Constable Cock?" (2007)

Looking for Mrs Elizabeth Cunliffe ………

History has not been kind to Elizabeth Cunliffe. 

The Soho Foundry Tavern, 1851, Great Ancoats Street

So far, she features in just one historical record, from the 1851 census after which there is nothing.

For a brief while I thought I had found her ten years earlier and again for the last three decades of the 19th century, which would have made an interesting story as it tracked a young farm servant to a woman “living on her own means” aged 93.

But on closer inspection the young farm worker is not the elderly woman with money behind her.

Sadly, they were neither born in the same year or in the same place, and so what could have a fascinating story charting a remarkable journey turns out to be nothing more than a shared name.

Nor is the young Elizabeth aged 16 and living on a farm close to Liverpool the 26 years old woman who had married a James Cunliffe and described herself as a “Publican” on the 1851 census.

But there is enough left in that one record to pursue Mrs Cunliffe.

They were living at 251 Great Ancoats Street, close to where the Ashton Canal runs under the road at New Islington.*

Great Ancoats Street, 1962

Mr Cunliffe was a “Boiler Maker employing six men” and while he appears on the Street Directory at 251 Great Ancoats Street he is not listed amongst the eight men of that name in the alphabetical section of the same directory.  

Those eight included a bricklayer, provision dealer, tanner, and mechanic, along with a beer retailer, crate maker, dyer and weaver.

Nor can I find any listing for Elizabeth in the directories despite the reference to her as a publican. 

Now that is intriguing because there was the Soho Foundry Tavern on Great Ancoats Street which is recorded on the Rate Books as a pub at 251 in 1854 and 1855, and its occupant was her husband.

So if this was their pub, they must have taken it over sometime during 1851 because at the start of the year the Soho Foundry Tavern was run by an Ann Goff and by 1863 by Joseph Abrahams.

Moreover I know that in 1847 they were in Newton Le Willows and by 1849 were here in Manchester, because Thomas their eldest had been born outside the city while the birth place of their daughter May was here in Manchester.

All of which looks more than a bit confusing and messy.  But it was not uncommon for families to have more than one occupation, and well into the 20th century some pubs were run as a secondary business.  

I thought at first that perhaps Mrs Cunliffe was actually a beer retailer, which was an occupation made possible by the 1830 Beer Act which allowed anyone who could afford to pay two guineas for a license to brew and sell their own beer from their home.  Often the beer was dispensed from one room of the family home, and some beer shops morphed into pubs.

Looking towards Great Ancoats Street, 2022 from New Islington

But the Soho Foundry Tavern was not a beer house/beer shop.  It is listed a public house, took up a large footprint on the maps and commanded a higher rateable value than the surrounding premises all of which suggests it was a going concern.

And that pretty much is that other than to record that a James Cunliffe was running a beer house in the 1880s at 347 Great Ancoats Street which commanded a rate of just £20 compared to the £50 paid for the Soho Foundry Tavern thirty years earlier.

I say that is it, but the mystery thickens slightly because the Elizabeth Cunliffe who appears in the census records for 1891 and 1901 may not share the same birthplace or date of birth as our Elizabeth from Great Ancoats Street, but she was living in Newton Le Willows which was also the birthplace of her husband James Cunliffe and their son Thomas.

So lots more research to do.

To which John Anthony Hewitt has added, "Hi Andrew, I have a marriage for a James Cunliffe, full age, Boiler Maker, Eccles Street, Liverpool, to Elizabeth Welsh, minor, Eccles Street, Liverpool, at St Nicholas Church, Liverpool, 30 March 1845. His father, John, was a Contractor, and her father, Thomas, a Shoemaker. Source: (https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2197/images/englb5617_283-nic-3-31_m_00034?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=wBg19&_phstart=successSource&pId=1703824) 

This would fit with the 1851 Census ages, 31 & 26, giving years of birth as ca. 1820 & ca 1825. 

Also, I noticed the 1851 Census recorded James Cunliffe as born in Ashton-le-Willows, which was another name for Ashton-in-Makerfield; old maps (NLS) also record 2 names for Newton-le-Willows, the alternative being Newton-in-Makerfield. Source for Ashton-le-Willows: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol4/pp142-148 "

And also fits with the 1841 census entry which shows the two of them living and working on a farm.

Location; Great Ancoats Street

Pictures; walking New Islington, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and in 1851 from Adshead’s map of Manchester, Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ and Goolden's Buildings, T Brooks,1962,m11279,courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*New Islington, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=New+islington

Painting Well Hall and Eltham ....... nu 10 outside the Park Tavern

Now I have been a wee bit harsh about Passey Place in the past.

You turn off into it from the High Street and once you have passed the old post office you are flanked by drab modern buildings with the side of the Market Place to your right and that long block of shops and flats opposite.

But there are those two fine looking houses a little further along and then the Park Tavern which Peter decided to paint recording it before its latest makeover.

So with that as an incentive I thought I would revisit Passey Place but with the twist that we are back in the April of 1911 when it was called Park Place and it counted amongst its residents, a doctor, a retired Professor a rate collector, and an omnibus conductor.

And I shall be even more specific and point out that those two fine houses I admire were the homes of Mr Murphy the rate collector and Mr Hutchinson the omnibus conductor and by 1914 the first had become the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music and perhaps because of that the Hutchinson’s next door had moved out and a Mr Morris had moved in.*

But there was one constant and that was William Smith the publican of the Park Tavern who was pulling pints by 1911 and perhaps earlier.

He was 50 years old in the year we wandered down the road, had been born in Scotland and had married Mrs Smith in 1883.

And they shared the pub with young Beatrice Serres and Alfred Osborn.  Beatrice was just 19 came from Kent and was employed as a domestic servant and Alfred at 79 was still working as a carpenter.

On the opposite side of the road along with the Post Office and Methodist Chapel were a number of residents including Madame Cecilia Ronsard who described herself as a dressmaker.

So an interesting and mixed bag of people in what I suspect was a more gentle and interesting street.

And now The Park is the favourite pub of our Jill and Geoff which is yet another reason to rethink all I have ever said and thought about Passey Place.

Painting; The Park Tavern © 2015 Peter Topping 

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Facebook: Paintings from Pictures https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures

*The Post Office London Directory, 1914 & the 1911 census return for the  Park Tavern Enu 06 Eltham London

In Rimini and everything is ok ……

So it is that time of year.

And today we got a postcard from Rosa who was on holiday in Rimini.

It was posted  two and a bit weeks ago which fits with that experience most of us have of arriving home before the postcards.

Nothing new in that.

Still Rosa does things in the old-fashioned way.

No text message, no picture via Whats Ap and no story posted on social media.

And that’s it.

Location; Rimini

Picture; "In Rimini and everything is ok"……, picture postcard, 2022

A Friday night in ..... with a heap of Italian pop songs

So l like watching Techetechete which goes out on the Italian TV station Rai 1 on Friday night.

Betty Curtis, 1964

It is one of those familiar light music programmes featuring Italian singers drawn from the decades back to the 1950s including a fair wallop of those from the 1960s.

So in one sense it is a well trodden path which with slightly different themes will appear across the globe.

But in another way it a perfect introduction  to popular Italian culture made all the more sweet by watching it with the Italian side of the family.

Location;  Italy over the decades in our front room 

PIcture; Betty Curtis 1964, from Radiocorriere

On going home to Varese

Varese is not I suppose somewhere I would naturally have ended up in.* 

It is a small Italian town of just under 82, 000 people, and an hour from Milan and depending on the road you choose about 15 minutes from the Swiss border.

It has its own grand lake, a pretty impressive mountain and a fine 18^th century town hall.

And that is about it.  But it is where we go once or twice a year to visit family and so it is a bit like a second home.  More than that it is a comfortable place to be.

I can walk into the centre in just fifteen minutes, wander a maze of little side streets which as if by magic open onto small piazzas and find in the shops all that I need.

And as always there are the bars, most like this one in the Corso Giacomo Matteotti spread out on to the square lapping the statute and pulling in the shoppers.

Today it had attracted a mixed bunch and I suppose if the weather had been a little drier and warmer there would have been many more.

It is a good spot.  Directly ahead is the archway that leads to the church of San Vittore, while behind me another more discrete set of doors leads into a hidden place. 

Here in what was once a monastery with its cloisters on three sides is a quiet spot.

A mix of shops, offices and a restaurant it is the sort of place you stumble across by accident and then keep getting drawn back.

I love the fading wall paintings and the fact that people still live just beyond the wall in an even smaller enclosed yard just to the south of the cloisters.

And that is one of other the attractions of the place, that people do still live here in the centre, so even as the city workers leave for the day and before the evening crowd arrive, there is still a buzz about the place.

So while stillness descends and there is a waiting expectation of what is to come this is no ghost town.

It may be quieter but the place has not been deserted.  All of which makes for a manageable place to live.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Varese, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Varese

The Manchester pawnbroker and his fine cottages in Didsbury ….. doing the essential walk and making it historic .... no. 5

This is Warburton Street in Didsbury, and if you should care to walk it, it won’t take long.

Warburton Street, 2020

In fact, it will be but a matter of moments to walk its entire length from Ogden Street to Wilmlsow Road.

In happier times that short walk would have lasted a tad bit longer if you had called in to Morten’s the Booksellers, followed by a meal in the restaurant next door, and finishing at the two  gift shops which are positioned at either end of the street.*

Warburton Street, 1911

The row of shops looks old, and as you do I decided to peel back their stories.

In 1911, those same properties were home to “Jn Crompton & Sons, paint stores", at number 2, William Richardson, platelayer at number 4, and Mrs. Emma Smith at number 6, who was listed as “householder”, and was a launderess, while finally at number 8 was Mr. Schofield who was a “night soil man” who worked for Manchester City Council.

While on the opposite side there lived a gardener, a hairdresser, two labourers along with the stables of the Midland Railways.

All of which is a neat cross section of the working resident of Didsbury, and by extension of the occupations of many who lived in Manchester.

Four decades earlier and those occupations were rooted in the land with a mix of agricultural labourers, and gardeners, along with a charwoman and domestic servant to cater for the wealthier.

Warburton Street and Hardman Street, south of the National School, 1845

But with a nod to the future one man described himself as “winder in a cotton factory” and another as "a grocery porter.”

Go back another twenty years to 1851 and along with those agricultural workers there were two of Didsbury’s last cotton weavers.

The census returns for the middle decades of the 19th century show that families were large, with anything between five to six people crammed into what were just two up and two down properties.

And using the Rate Books it is possible to track back and find not only the tenants but also the landlords.

In 1911 the entire south side of Warburton Street which consisted of our five houses, along with Hardman Street and Ogden Street were owned by a Charles Haynes who took home £147 from just these streets.

Mr. Haynes's stamping ground, 1851

In time I shall go looking for him, but for now I am content to explore the life of his father, Richard Haynes, who was born in 1802, married Harriet Farrington in 1821, aged just 19, and by 1848 was operating as a Pawnbroker at 30 Pump Street which was off London Road.

For the next decade and more he plied his trade on Pump Street and also Minshull Street, before moving to Didsbury.

A move which in part might have been motivated by his growing property empire, which he may have built.

Pump Street, 1850

Just when that was is as yet unclear.

The first entry in the Rate Books for Warburton Street is 1849, but they appear on the tithe map four years earlier, and Mr. Richard Haynes was in business by 1841, so he might well have accrued enough capital to sink his money into property.

And nothing quite surprises me about the man, because back in 1841 he is listed as a baker working from Back Acton Street, which was off Pump Street and ran parallel with London Road.

Just when he escaped the city and the murky world of pawnshops is unclear, but by 1861, he and Harriet are at number 3 Hardman Street, in a house which commanded fine views of the fields all the way down to Didsbury House, with the added bonus that his growing property empire was just a minute’s walk away.

Hardman Street with Warburton Street and the National School, 1854

And so assured was he of his new position in Didsbury society that he described himself as a “Proprietor of Houses”, and all reference to him in Manchester is absent from the records.

Location; Didsbury

Pictures; Warburton Street, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Back Pump Street, 1851, from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1851, and Hardman Street, 1854, from the OS map of Lancashire, 1854, , courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/


*Orchard Interiors & Gifts 2, Warburton Street, No. 4 Dine & Wine, 4 Warburton Street, E.J. Morten Booksellers, 6 Warburton Street, Harriet and Dee, Cards and Gifts, 8 Warburton Street